Introduction to Agriculture and Its Importance in India and Uttar Pradesh
Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating soil, growing crops and raising livestock. The UPMSP High School paper tests whether you can define agriculture and its branches and can place agriculture in India's and Uttar Pradesh's economy and employment.
Core ideas
- Branches: agronomy (field crops), horticulture (fruits, vegetables, flowers), animal husbandry, forestry (silviculture), fisheries (pisciculture), apiculture (bees) and sericulture (silk).
- Share in the economy: agriculture with its allied sectors contributes about 18 per cent of India's GDP but employs nearly half the workforce, so output per worker is low.
- Uttar Pradesh is India's largest producer of foodgrains, wheat, sugarcane and potato, and it has a very large cattle and buffalo population.
- Land-use terms: geographical area, net sown area (NSA), gross cropped area (GCA), cropping intensity = GCA ÷ NSA × 100.
- Farming systems: subsistence, commercial, dry, irrigated, mixed farming, plantation and dairy farming.
Worked example
A block has 40,000 ha of geographical area, 30,000 ha of net sown area and a gross cropped area of 54,000 ha. Cropping intensity = 54,000 ÷ 30,000 × 100 = 180 per cent, meaning each hectare is cropped 1.8 times a year. Write "180 per cent", never "1.8 per cent". If only 6,000 ha were double-cropped, GCA would be 30,000 + 6,000 = 36,000 ha.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing net sown area with gross cropped area.
- Writing "agriculture employs 18 per cent" - 18 per cent is the GDP share.
- Naming horticulture as a branch of agronomy; it is a separate branch.
- Forgetting sericulture (silk) and apiculture (honey).